Brevard Will Rid Waters Of Castoff Boats

MELBOURNE — Boats abandoned in Brevard County waterways will be taken to the county landfill or sold as county officials begin to crack down on the floating eyesores next week.

After vessels are declared derelict, county code enforcement officials will post notices on them to warn owners that their boats are in violation of the county code, a misdemeanor. County commissioners passed an amendment to the county code last week adding boats to the county ordinance on junk and abandoned vehicles.

If boat owners do not remove their deserted vessels within 30 days, the boats will be broken up and taken to the landfill or sold, said Wayne Kohout, county code enforcement manager. Brevard jail inmates will break up the boats, which often are partly submerged and rotting. The vessels then will be removed by independent contractors and county public works employees.

''We've already identified 175 abandoned boats, primarily in the south end of the county,'' Kohout said. ''Most of them are in such bad condition they probably will be destroyed.''

Florida Marine Patrol officers in Brevard said searching for an abandoned boat's owner usually is futile because most of the vessels don't have markings to identify them. Some of the boats are left by seasonal clammers who come to Brevard from the North to make as much as $500 a day, officers said. Unmarked boats can be bought cheaply or seized during clamming season, so the vessels often change hands every two weeks. The last person to use the boat usually sinks it or leaves it on shore, they said.

Until the Legislature last year amended the state Abandoned Property Act, which allowed local governments to keep their waterways clear of abandoned vessels, the state Department of Natural Resources was responsible for the job. It often took the state up to two years to have a boat picked up by contractors who bid to remove all abandoned boats in the state all at once

''Now we're going to go after abandoned boats near the shore as well as those in navigable waters,'' Kohout said. ''Eventually we're going to get them all removed.''

County Commissioner Andrea Deratany pushed for the county code amendment after she received complaints from residents about abandoned or inoperative boats cluttering the Indian River in south Brevard. Those complaints reflected a problem throughout Brevard, she said.